Reviews

Limelight Magazine, September 3, 2018Dean’s first opera, with libretto by two-time Miles Franklin Award-winning author Rodney Hall and commissioned for the Queensland Conservatorium’s Opera School, is set in Western Queensland on the eve of Federation, and it’s these gender imbalances that form the crux of the work’s drama and tragedy.The scene is set with a dawn funeral, flies buzzing in the violas as the lights gradually reveal a stark, desert stage – Peter Mumford’s semi-abstract set is raw and open (along with lighting designer Nigel Levings, he gives the work a sharp visual unity), a simple timber platform the only landmark as a dry, clacking ostinato underpins the music. Archie Callaway, an outspoken advocate of Federation, has died, leaving behind his widow Gladys and daughter Veronica. His conservative brother, Reverend Callaway, has arrived in town to claim his half of Archie’s property, Dry River Run. The chorus enters with the hymn O God, Our Help in Ages Past, the European music struggling to assert itself against the wild landscape painted by the orchestra.Against the backdrop of another struggle – that of pro and anti-Federation sentiment – a more personal story unfolds. Archie’s young employees, Henry and Joseph, are both in love with Veronica, Dry River Run’s architecture echoing that of Janáček’s Jenůfa. The love-triangle doesn’t go un-noticed by Reverend Callaway, who orchestrates a ‘test’ of Veronica’s mettle: the two boundary riders will take her with them on a ride to a remote cabin on the Callaway property – a cabin with a dark history – and leave her there alone.Dean is perhaps still best known as a clarinettist, but his career as a composer is escalating rapidly – he’s the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s Composer in Residence next year – and this ambitious first foray into opera has yielded some wonderful writing, a stirring, tenebrous score shot through with prominent lines for clarinet, bass clarinet, oboe and cor anglais. The student orchestra, under the baton of Nicholas Cleobury, handles the complex music with aplomb: as Veronica sings of butterflies she’s haloed by a glittering swarm from the orchestra, while wry suggestions of hoof beats accompany Joseph and Henry on a lazy ride (astride two wooden barrels in one of the opera’s few lighter moments) and the ensemble charts the escalating drama in cracking orchestral thunder.

Dry River Run adds to a significant canon of operas drawing on Australia’s history – from Richard Mills’ Batavia and Richard Meale’s Voss to more recent works such as Kate Miller-Heidke’s The Rabbits and Deborah Cheetham’s Pecan Summer – holding a mirror up to Australia both at Federation and today. While the tough Gladys Callaway is optimistic, Dry River Run as an opera is less so, painting a grim picture of the future in which the old pre-Federation power structures of church and class simply adapt to the new order, echoes of which resound in contemporary discussions of equality and gendered violence.More optimistic, however, is the future of Australian opera, both in the hands of the young singers at the Queensland Conservatorium and those of a composer flexing his opera muscles for the first time in an audacious – and I would say ultimately successful – foray into the genre.​Read the full review www.limelightmagazine.com.au/reviews/dry-river-run-queensland-conservatorium/Stage Whispers September 3, 2018"Paul Dean’s new Australian opera Dry River Run is a powerful and epic piece of theatre. ""Although it’s set in Colonial times, there’s nothing Colonial about Paul Dean’s music which is atonal, atmospheric, and lyrical. Scored for a full orchestra, his opening with its buzz of flies and butcher bird cries is brilliantly evocative of the outback, whilst his full orchestral bombast to describe the anguish and turmoil the Reverend suffers before the rape is brutally horrific, likewise Veronica’s emotional state post-rape which is realised in adagio balletic form by a group of young women dancers.""Dry River Run is a masterful addition to the burgeoning canon of new Australian operas. It deserves a long life."Peter Pinne, Stage WhispersRead the full review http://www.stagewhispers.com.au/reviews/dry-river-run

London Observer July 10 2016Paul Dean, Trish O'Brien with Igor Kennaway, LondonAway from the glitter and glamour of international opera, most of us experience professional music-making at local level, in countless small concerts held in halls and churches all over the country. Sometimes – just sometimes – they can produce miraculous moments of alchemy. When the feathery lightness of Paul Dean’s clarinet joins with the coolly articulated cello of Trish O’Brien and the beautifully judged pianism of Igor Kennaway, musical gold pours forth. Their reading of the Mozart Kegelstatt Trio K498 was a sophisticated delight, an object lesson in playful interaction and sheer good taste. Monumental solemnity came in the form of Elégie Juive and Three Poems by Kennaway’s stepfather Benjamin Frankel, before there was a return to more cheeky fun in Beethoven’s bubbling Clarinet Trio in B flat major, Op 11.It’s not always necessary to spend heavily on top-priced tickets to hear outstandingly talented musicians. Sometimes, just a few pounds left in a retiring collection can buy you an hour of heaven.www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jul/10/il-trovatore-royal-opera-le-nozze-di-figaro-glyndebourne-dean-kennaway-o-brien-review

“the excellent Paul Dean” Sunday Times, London“…superb clarinet playing and very fine music-making. Recommended” Fanfare (USA)“Paul Dean … manages to draw out the emotional qualities of the work providing elegant passages of chiaroscuro.” National Business Review (NZ)“The rich sounds of clarinet and piano are captured with uncommon warmth and presence . . . a master of his instrument” Classical CD Review (US)“… excellent playing and tonal control by Dean” Otago Daily Times (NZ)“… superbly played … wonderfully recorded.” Turok’s Choice (US)“If you seek the best of nineteenth century music for clarinet and piano, look no further.” Music & Vision Daily (UK)“…outstanding…” New Classics (UK)“Paul Dean shapes the lovely melodic arches in both works with a sure musical instinct…” The Absolute Sound (US)“[Paul Dean] deploys his warm, flexible tone with great discernment throughout” The West Australian (Australia)“…this SACD is a little marvel of which one must also praise the quality presentation.” Opus Haute Définition (France)“Paul Dean is magnificently accompanied by The Queensland Orchestra.” Res Musica (France)“Two classic clarinet works from the master … which reach the highest musical standards.” Pittwater Life (Australia)“. . . two of Australia’s most sensitive and poetic musicians. . . . Highlight: Brahms’ emotional complexity. Otago Daily Times (NZ)“…the soloist’s performance is of such quality that it is worth hearing on his account…The recording is excellent…” MusicWeb International (UK)“Paul Dean brings great warmth to his execution of the instrument’s fulsome role in its partnerships with orchestra… Sunday Herald Sun (Australia)“Paul Dean plays with all the virtuosic style that has won him honours as ‘the most distinguished clarinettist of his… The Courier Mail (Australia)“In both works Paul Dean demonstrates his exemplary fluency and a stylish, marvellously phrased affinity for Mozart’s… Music and Vision Daily (UK)“…ideal music for a wet wintry day…It would be difficult to imagine more sympathetic and capable performances” Fine Music (Australia)“Outstanding, innovative, inspiring…Disc of the Year”Otago Daily Times (NZ)“…remarkable CD… a sonic tapestry of contemporary Brisbane, as torpid as a summer day, as threatening as a thundershower… Weekend Australian“…lovingly crafted…magnificent…one to be treasured.” Limelight Magazine